A Research Agenda for Media Policy in 2007

The final report for the SSRC Media Policy Research Pre-conference which took place on January 11th in Memphia, can be found
here .

Summary from SSRC is below

Overall Themes and Challenges

Given the breadth and depth of issues discussed at the Media Policy
Research Pre-conference, there were a wide range of research needs
and policy opportunities discussed. However from these discussions,
some overall areas requiring focused attention and action can be
identified.

Research Needs

Need for Quantitative Research: A number of working groups discussed
the need for more econometric analyses and other quantitative studies
to back up the claims being made by advocacy groups in their areas.
Within the Net Neutrality group, they noted that a systematic
economic impact assessment of broadband service provision would be
very useful for policymaking and advocacy. The public access TV
group identified the need for better metrics to begin to measure more
accurately the impact of access centers across the United States.
The Media Representations group called for more statistical analysis
of employment data for broadcast stations related to minorities and
women.

Need for Access to Data: A number of scholars discussed the
difficulties surrounding access to data required to conduct research
in their areas of focus. This was most salient for the media
ownership group as well as the media representations group, but in a
field dominated by industry-produced datasets this remains an
overarching concern. The Data Consortium for Media and
Communications Policy will endeavor to address these needs in 2007
through developing a

Tuesday, February 20th, 2007, by Lshade and is filed under "Media Reform Conference ". Both comments and pings are currently closed.